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DEL.ICIO.USBecause fat kids must play their part in the economy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine on Wednesday will air a television ad in Atlanta targeting U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss because, the group says, Chambliss is responsible for fat school children.
The ad, called “Dirty Little Secrets,” plays out not in a field of waving grain but in a public men’s room, spoofing the arrest of Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), a member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, on charges that Craig solicited gay sex in an airport restroom.
“Secrets” is aimed at members of the Senate Agriculture Committee and the 2007 farm bill they drafted. The bill, Physicians Committee said, benefits corporations that produce fatty foods like ‘burgers and bacon that the government then buys and distributes to public schools and government assistance programs. In exchange, senators rake in fatty amounts of campaign cash from those corporations.
“Companies get rich, kids get fat,” the ad’s narrator intones.
But before “Secret” even aired on television the Physicians Committee came under a withering attack by the Center for Consumer Freedom as a fake public-health interest group that is really a front for the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA.
The Physicians Committee isn’t pro-kids, CCF said. It’s anti-meat!
CCF director David Martosko called the Physicians Committee “a bunch of chicken-saving extremists” and its ad “deceptive propaganda.”
“The phony Physicians Committee certainly chose a subject it knows something about: people who hide their true nature from the public,” Martosko said.
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By John
September 25, 2007 8:24 PM | Link to this
Interesting how this blog conveniently left out the details of CCF’s funding sources which include Big Tobacco and fast food restaurants. www.consumerdeception.com is pretty eye-opening.
By Victor Jones
September 25, 2007 9:53 PM | Link to this
i’ve been a fat kid and a vegetarian but i’ve never read the likes of this. btw, buzz just won the clinton couch potatoe award at peach punt it. he’s our heroe for the day.
By tom
September 25, 2007 11:02 PM | Link to this
CCF calling anyone else a front group is the pot calling the kettle black. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=CenterforConsumer_Freedom
By fact_checker
September 25, 2007 11:06 PM | Link to this
Can you imagine an ad questioning Saxby’s sexual preference by filming the inside of an airport restroom? Flashing his face on screen with known homosexuals? What would be the difference between that and his questioning of our former Senator’s patriotism, comparing him with terrorists. Fair game, I’d say. According to Saxby, it doesn’t have to be true to work. Hmmmmm…..
By John Franklin
September 26, 2007 2:58 AM | Link to this
Agribusiness buys senators. Senators pass bill with massive subsidies for agribusiness. Doctors question subsidies. Agribusiness funds corporate front group with hilariously deceptive name. Corporate front group rolls eyes, froths at mouth, spews venom at doctors. Funny, yet also quite sad.
By GreenAcres
September 26, 2007 9:45 AM | Link to this
This ad is great! It’s getting people to pay attention to the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill affects every American. It influences what foods are in nutrition programs, like WIC and the National School Lunch Program. Most Farm Bill subsidies fund unhealthy foods or the crops that are fed to livestock. These animals are eventually killed and processed into cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and other fatty foods. Unfortunately, these are the foods that are cheap and available. Americans needs more affordable fruits and vegetables. And people who rely on school lunches, WIC, and Food Stamps need to have access to fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods. If you go to the PCRM Web site, there is a place where you can e-mail your senators about the Farm Bill and ask them to make healthy changes.
By Greg
September 26, 2007 9:55 AM | Link to this
PCRM is a PETA front group. See www.PhysicianScam.com and learn the truth.
By Greg
September 26, 2007 9:55 AM | Link to this
PCRM is a PETA front group. Only 3 percent of its members are actually doctors. No meat-eaters allowed. See www.PhysicianScam.com and learn the truth.
By TR
September 26, 2007 10:19 AM | Link to this
“Center for Consumer Freedom” sounds like a Fox News name to me. If the name is that Oreiley, then one can only imagine what their actual policies are. Better ‘chicken matryrs’ than ‘Enron Bushites’
By Josh
September 26, 2007 11:19 AM | Link to this
This ad shows hows desperate Democrats have become. They have no candidate so they have to rely on some pseudo-organization to trash Republicans. Give me a break.
Chambliss has represented Georgia well and will continue to do so.
By Anon
September 26, 2007 11:42 AM | Link to this
Just a little tidbit about the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF): The group is essentially a front group for the restaurant, alcohol, and tobacco industries. CCF is notorious for running media campaigns opposing the efforts of scientists, doctors, health advocates, and environmentalists. On previous occasions, the group’s president Rick Berman has said that his strategy is “to shoot the messenger. … We’ve got to attack their credibility as spokespersons.” The group’s PR spin is inaccurate, devious and untrustworthy.
By Will Jones
September 26, 2007 11:45 AM | Link to this
Chambliss is a draft-dodging tool of the homosexual draft-dodger in the White House. Is that what passes for a man in South Georgia? I don’t think so. Let’s wise up, Georgia.
By Carl
September 26, 2007 2:10 PM | Link to this
I love to see PETA nuts caught with their organic drawers down. This is hilarious. I hope Congress isn’t stupid enough to fall for their phony-baloney routine, but I’m not too optimistic.
By Ann
September 26, 2007 3:57 PM | Link to this
Even if CCF is a front for the restaurant/tobacco/big farm industries, PCRM is STILL a PETA front, and PETA is the poster child for hypocrisy. It’s not about saving animals — PETA’s one shelter has a kill rate that exceeds many public shelters. It’s not about saving anything — PETA is about power and money.
By Jer
September 26, 2007 8:53 PM | Link to this
Ann-Amen
At least CCF is trying to make people take responsibility for their actions and get off your duff and exercise. PCRM (or PETA) are nothing but a bunch of whack jobs whose only mission is to stamp out food it doesn’t like (meat) under the guise of a Physician’s group (which they are not).
I certainly trust CCF than some mis-guided moralist on a crusade for my better being, when I want them to leave me alone and go eat their vegatable crap where they want and leave my cheeseburgers alone.
By Pat
September 27, 2007 1:06 PM | Link to this
Thank you, Ann, for pointing out how most of the comments here try to deflect the spotlight from the “factoids” of PETA et.al. CCF does not disguise it’s mission. PETA et.al. do because how does one romanticize a rutabaga. It’s a fact that their self acknowledged kill rate is 90% of the pets they “rescue.” See their annual report to the State of North Carolina (Virginia?). Also, let’s not forget the trial of 2 PETA empoyess caught redhanded throwing bags of dead dogs into a dumpster after promising shelters and owners to try to find them good homes.
By Mark
September 27, 2007 1:26 PM | Link to this
No, CCF is NOT trying to get people to take responsibility for their actions. They attack Mothers Against Drunk Driving (a group that simply asks people to be responsible and not drink and drive - to take responsibility for their actions). They attack the Center for Disease Control. They’ve been forced to retract statements they’ve made in the past because they were untrue. CCF is a front group from big tobacco/alcohol/restaurants and are paid to run smear campaigns against anyone who would dare question them. CCF was created by Phillip Morris to defend people of his ilk and convince people that tobacco really isn’t bad for you. Taking responsibility for their actions? Hardly. THEY are about power and money.
By A
September 27, 2007 1:43 PM | Link to this
How does that story have ANYTHING to do with PETA?? CCF CLAIMS that PCRM is a front group for the organization. That’s it to cause all of you people to go a tirade about PETA. CCF doesn’t back up their claims - they rarely do. Which is why they’ve been forced to retract them in the past. PCRM and PETA are run by different people, staffed by different people and have different agendas. Yes, they have similar goals in some respects, such as encouraging people to eliminate meat from their diets. Does the fact that they have similar missions imply one is a front group for the other? Is Ducks Unlimited a front group for the NRA just because they both deal with hunting issues? That’s about as tenuous a claim as CCF makes. If you want to attack PCRM then do that - if you even know anything about them, besides what CCF reports on them, but I’ll assume that the people here going nuts in their PETA rants are doing so just becase they don’t know anything about PCRM.
By Carl
September 27, 2007 4:00 PM | Link to this
You’re so clueless. PCRM’s president was also president of the PETA foundation until a year ago. PETA gavse them $1.3 million. The same person is their largest donor. They share payroll services and accountants. Even the animal rights press (Animal People News) writes that PETA and PCRM should be considered a single unit.
By Brian Mora
September 29, 2007 7:57 PM | Link to this
PCRM are NOT really a physician’s group —- just a fringe minority neoliberal gang of misfit losers who are hellbent on forcing lying propaganda on the American people who steadfastly refuse to give up their lifestyle to satisfy crackpot ideas on health. Anyone who gloms on to the lies of the neocommunist PCRM lacks common sense and intelligence. The PCRM should be broken under the RICO Act.